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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is Sergey Mikhaylych?

2. How does Tolstoy describe Marya and Sergey's feelings for each other?

3. What does Ivan Ilych do after his first child is born?

4. What does Tolstoy say Marya and Sergey each believe about the other?

5. What does Tolstoy say Dmitri hopes to find in the Caucasus?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Eugene Irtenev and where does he live at the beginning of the story?

2. What causes Marya's depression?

3. How does illness affect Ivan Ilych?

4. What kinds of problems does Ivan Ilych have with Praskovya Federovna, his wife?

5. What is Marya Alexandrovna's situation at the beginning of "Family Happiness"?

6. What happens to end the truce between Ivan Ilych and Praskovya Federovna?

7. When do Ivan Ilych and Praskovya Federovna finally arrive at a truce?

8. Describe the promotions Ivan Ilych receives.

9. What does Dmitri Olenin think he will find in the Caucasus?

10. What torments Eugene Irtenev, and how does he plan to end his suffering?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Tolstoy's literary universe a chaotic one, as people say modern life is chaotic or random--or is it organized around some law or consistency? What law Tolstoy's fictional world organized around?

Essay Topic 2

What is Tolstoy's relation with his characters and the events he describes? Is he a sympathetic narrator, or does he distance himself from his characters' thoughts and actions?

Essay Topic 3

How does Tolstoy treat the relationship between Russians and others--Chechen, Tartars, Cossacks, Turks? What make Russians Russian? What distinguishes them from the others, and what is the basis for hostility when there his hostility? What stance does Tolstoy take in presenting these relationships? (Sympathetic, critical, nationalistic?)

(see the answer keys)

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